Life in the Scriptures has a new format that will spend a Year in the New Testament, in a book-by-book journey reading one chapter per day. This approach enables busy people to have daily Bible readings, and to increase their familiarity with the people, places, and teachings of the New Testament. It is a profitable and helpful Bible study method. May God bless it to you.

May 31, 2011

Yesterday's reading in Deuteronomy was a call for obedience and a promise of blessings. Today's reading in Jeremiah is a prayer for deliverance from the wages of sin. In Jeremiah, Israel has entirely deserted the Covenant of God. Every kind of evil flourished in Israel as the people turned from God and embraced the self-indulgent paganism around them. Everything God warned them to avoid, they embraced. Everything God told them to do, they rejected. But most of all, they rejected God. Many still went through the motions of serving God. They kept the services and ceremonies of the Covenant, but they would not keep God in their hearts.

So, all the blessings of the Covenant have been taken from them. Instead of the rains, God gave them drought. Instead of plenty, God gave them scarcity. Instead of God, God gave them spiritual emptiness and drought. Clearly God is willing to punish sinners. This is true of individuals and churches. But it is also true that God hears the prayers of those who repent. May God "leave us not."

A Prayer for Biblical Understanding

Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given to us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.